I am absolutely clear that I am incapable of writing a book. So are most people (incapable of writing a book that is). It is extremely difficult. It is even more clear that - and I know it - I couldn't write a great book. Great books are rare and wonderful and require a slice of genius. However, there are some books which I half-think I should have had a crack at writing. I've just read one such.

The book is about a team of (almost entirely) useless cricketers known as the Captain Scott XI, named after the (failed) great explorer and against whom the Baldons Cricket Club (for whom I have played for more than thirty years) battled annually. The author, Harry Thompson, tragically died before the book was published. I remember him as a highly competitive, irritating and rather untalented opening batsman (not unlike me). He has, however, written the book I would love to have had the talent to write.

It is not just about low-quality cricketers touring the world. As a producer and writer of, amongst other things, Have I got news for you, he knows how to put the boot into the likes of British Airways. However, he is also wise. In one scene, the team is enjoying the low cost of food and drink in Buenos Aires. A bottle of Malbec which would cost £20 in London was selling for £2. Rather than buy the £2 bottle they wondered how a £20 bottle of Malbec in BsAs would taste. Out of this world, of course. And a good strategy.

It's an excellent and funny book published by John Murray and I'm sure they won't mind my pointing out the mis-spelling of 'genius' in the blurb of the hardback.

PS on book prices. The average price of a meal for one in the new restaurants in London as recommended by food critic Fay Maschler is £41. Makes Harry Potter,even at full price, a real snip.